Honor 9 Lite evaluate: chief of the comparatively cheap Android pack

As Huawei’s finances company, Honor handsets are neatly accepted for offering low in cost for money. With the Honor 9 Lite the ‘low cost’ theme is raised a notch, because of an 18:9 point ratio 5.65-inch display and no fewer than four cameras.

Judging by its name, you may predict the honour 9 Lite to be a trimmed-down version of the Honor 9, but there are some large variances that suggest the new handset is a step sideways instead of a step down.

the honour 9’s 5.15-inch 1,080-by-1,920 (sixteen:9) display is trumped right here by means of a bigger, taller 5.sixty five-inch 1,080-by means of-2,160 (18:9) monitor. There are additionally twin cameras front and returned, whereas the honour 9 only has twin rear cameras. on the time of writing the honour 9 is promoting for £349 (inc. VAT) direct from Honor, so the honor 9 Lite’s £199.99 appears very attractive.

 

The 5.sixty five-inch Honor 9 Lite has a 1,080-by means of-2,a hundred and sixty (18:9) monitor and is powered via the octa-core Kirin 659 chipset with 3GB of RAM. It has 32GB of interior storage, which will also be augmented by means of a MicroSD card, however you’re going to have to swap out the latter to use a 2d SIM. The front-dealing with and rear cameras are both twin 13MP/2MP units.

photos: Huawei/Honor

the honour 9 Lite is available in blue and grey. each colorations use the equal metal and glass chassis aggregate because the Honor 9, and i had the identical issues right here as with the previous handset. The glass again is barely too slippery to grasp securely, and it collects fingerprints far too without difficulty. there may be additionally a little bit of a lip where the again meets the metal edges of the mobile, which feels a bit uncomfortable within the hand.

still, the nearly bezel-free screen makes the respect 9 Lite distinctly compact and light at 71.9mm huge by using 151mm deep with the aid of 7.6mm thick and 149g. As 18:9 phones go, here’s a tidy design.

The vigour connector is historic-customary Micro-USB rather than USB-C, and there’s a standard three.5mm headset jack on the bottom part too. unlike with most flagship smartphones, there isn’t a IP ranking for filth and water resistance.

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To assist accommodate the tall reveal and maintain the usual size down, the fingerprint sensor is on the again of the gadget, which is an excellent thing. Hitting a dash button under the monitor is a good deal much less relaxed than discovering one on the again of the chassis, notably for those who’re working one-passed.

The sensor may also be used for a couple of things in addition to login: touch and grasp to answer a call, take a photo or shoot a video and silence an alarm; sweep down on the sensor to reveal the notification panel; double contact to clear notifications and slide as much as shut the panel; and sweep left and correct to movement via photographs.

The rear-established fingerprint sensor will also be configured for various extra makes use of.

photo: Sandra Vogel/ZDNet

The additional pixels of depth supplied via the 18:9 layout are positive, and the monitor’s 428ppi pixel density makes even small textual content eminently readable. The panel also offers a whole lot of brightness for outdoor studying. there may be an ‘eye comfort’ mode that reduces blue light, which can be set to kick out and in at scheduled times, or be toggled manually. A slider lets you set the precise colour temperature.

the respect 9 Lite will accommodate two SIMs, youngsters the 2nd SIM ought to be sacrificed if you wish to increase the 32GB of inside storage with a MicroSD card. Out of the box, my assessment handset had 22.78GB free. The octa-core Huawei Kirin 659 processor with 3GB of RAM isn’t any flagship offering, however efficiency is completely perfect (3698 on multi-core Geekbench 4, 12418 on 3DMark Ice Storm limitless).

the honor 9 Lite runs Android 8.0 (Oreo) overlain with the Huawei/Honor EMUI 8.0 skin. one of the most evident elements of EMUI is that it places all apps on a house screen rather than in a drawer: if you opt for the latter, the settings are comfortably tweaked.

essentially the most demanding thing concerning the Honor 9 Lite is the sheer volume of pre-installed utility, together with six games, Instagram, Ebay, booking.com, an bizarre little app known as mirror that shows your mugshot inner a frame, and a digital compass. None of those apps are traumatic in themselves, but installing them may still be a remember of consumer choice.

each the entrance and rear cameras are dual 13-megapixel/2-megapixel affairs. The low-decision cameras are all about providing the depth suggestions crucial for the now-ordinary bokeh effect that blurs a area’s background artistically. it really works rather nicely, and is chiefly valuable for selfies.

points like easy portray, time lapse and filters add a bit fun to images. average, though, the cameras are not as constructive as those on exact-conclusion handsets: the HDR feature is adequate but not amazing, whereas low-light photos can be very darkish.

there is satisfactory audio punch from the handset’s single speaker to carry a fairly decent gaming and listening event, and it’s excellent to look an FM radio on-board. This was a common smartphone feature, however has just about disappeared in fresh years.

the respect 9 Lite runs Android 8.0 (Oreo) with Huawei/Honor’s EMUI 8.0 consumer interface overlay.

picture: Sandra Vogel/ZDNet

the honor 9 Lite is powered by using a 3,000mAh battery, which it be claimed will hold the handset going for 86 hours of offline music listening or 13 hours offline video watching. all through the review duration I managed a day’s usage with out situation, but there is no speedy-cost aid, so it is going to take a while to get a close-empty battery up to full can charge.

Conclusions

The 5.65-inch Honor 9 Lite is a properly designed handset with an exquisite 18:9 display that performs neatly. but it is never excellent: Honor talks up the two twin-lens cameras, however truly there are low easy issues and the secondary 2-megapixel cameras have restrained performance. Water resistance and fast-charging assist are also absent from the characteristic checklist.

nonetheless, the honor 9 Lite sets a brand new high bar for the £200 rate element, making it the within your budget Android handset to beat.

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